Archive for January 11th, 2010

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.To subscribe, click here

Saturday 1/9/10

El Debate (Sinaloa) 1/8/10

Another journalist falls

A well-respected veteran news reporter for the periodical Zocalo de Saltillo in the state of Coahuila was found executed mob-style with a “cartel message” on his chest. Valentin Valdes Espinosa had been abducted at gunpoint with two other news reporters. The unknown kidnappers took two of the three. [No mention was made of the fate of the other kidnap victim or why the third reporter was not abducted.]

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El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 1/8/10

President answers critics

Mexican President Felipe Calderón is irked at those states that discredit the intervention of federal forces in the war against organized crime and blame it as the cause of the violence. “The government intervenes because there is violence and crime, not the other way around; it’s not that there is violence and crime because the federal government intervenes,” he asserted in a meeting with his diplomatic corps.

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La Voz de la Frontera (Mexicali, Baja California) 1/8/10

Unprecedented violence in Tijuana

[The first line sums it up.] Tijuana, Baja California – In a new onslaught by organized crime that in the past few days has made executions a tragic custom, yesterday five people were executed by firearms and no one is arrested.

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Cuarto Poder (Chiapas) 1/8/10

Remittances dwindling

In Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, one of every four families is being affected by the decline in remittances sent by more than 400,000 of the state’s citizens residing in the US. According to sources from the University of Mexico (UNAM), during 2009 the drop in economic aid received by families from their relatives in the US was between 25 and 30 %. Chiapas is among the 15 Mexican states that make up 81% of the recipients of remittances from the US and in the past decade has had a major increase in migrations to the north.

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Sunday 1/10/10

El Universal (Mexico City) 1/9/10

Deadly violence prevails in Cd. Juarez

Seventeen people were assassinated between late afternoon Friday and early morning Saturday in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. Among the victims were two decapitated and three women riddled by gunfire during the wave of violence linked to organized crime. The bloody day was one of the most violent in the past few months in the city across the river from El Paso, Texas.

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Mexican immigration agents nabbed

Mexican federal police in Cancun, Quintana Roo, arrested 20 Mexican immigration agents assigned to the international airport in the resort city on charges of trafficking in undocumented Chinese. The immigration department (INM) detected the entry of 35 Chinese in November and, in December, intercepted another group arriving from Cuba. Subsequent investigation led to the agents’ arrests.

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Police continue to be targets

A heavily armed group in 10 “luxury” SUVs intercepted a commander of the municipal police of Culiacan, Sinaloa, and three of his officers today as they were on patrol, abducting them and fleeing to parts unknown. [Nothing more was reported.]

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El Debate (Sinaloa) 1/9/10

Follow-up on abduction (above)

A later story in El Debate reports that three of the police officers abducted with the police commander have been released. The commander remains missing.

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Monday 1/11/10

Cambio de Michoacan (Morelia, Michoacan) 1/10/10

Reynosa deportation report

A non-governmental organization, The Center for Border Studies and Promotion of Human Rights (Cefprodhac) reported that during 2009, it attended to 13,636 people who were “expelled” by US authorities across the border at Reynosa, Tamaulipas. This was a 35% increase over 2008. About 50% of those questioned were day laborers. The article continues with a lengthy statistical review that can be reviewed at http://www.cambiodemichoacan.com.mx/vernota.php?id=115943 and ends with the notation that some 58% of those interviewed expressed an intention to attempt re-entry into the US.

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El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 1/10/10

An abduction with a heart

Last Thursday evening, a husband and wife and three other females, including a three-year-old, were abducted from their home in Culiacan, Sinaloa. The next day, Friday, the young child was released unharmed onto the streets of Culiacan. The bodies of the other four members of the family were discovered Sunday, hands and feet tied and dumped near a highway. One of the females was 17.

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El Universal (Mexico City) 1/10/10

[Op/ed note regarding the risks and burdens of accurate reporting from Mexico.]

Alarming, the situation of journalists in Mexico

Frankly alarming, unreal, the situation that faces journalists in carrying out their work in Mexico. A job, a trade or profession that has become ultra-high risk. No one, except the authorities in charge of guaranteeing the security of a citizenry driven to the limits of cruelty, has managed to impede the wave of executions of the communicators in the country. The abduction and assassination of the reporter Valentin Valdes Espinosa of the periodical Zocalo de Saltillo is one more case of the violence practiced against those who have chosen to inform the community about the happenings of the day. Valdes not only was kidnapped by an armed gang, but also tortured and brutally murdered at close range. A colleague accompanying him was miraculously released. The CNDH [Human rights org.] condemned the crime and revealed a macabre reality: To this date, 58 journalists have lost their lives in our country since 2000.